LINGUIST List 7.474

Thu Mar 28 1996

Qs: Dates, C Harmony, Discussant, -ing, Bilingualism

Editor for this issue: T. Daniel Seely <dseelyemunix.emich.edu>

We'd like to remind readers that the responses to queries are usually
best posted to the individual asking the question. That individual is
then strongly encouraged to post a summary to the list. This policy was
instituted to help control the huge volume of mail on LINGUIST; so we
would appreciate your cooperating with it whenever it seems appropriate.

I'm conducting survey of how speakers of English pronounce dates
and names containing dates. I'd appreciate it if members
of the LINGUIST list would respond to the following using words
spelled with letters only and no numerals. For example, the
response to "The name of one of George Orwell's best-known
novels is `{1984}'" would be written as out "nineteen
eighty-four". In replying you need only spell out what is
contained in the {braces}. As a context, imagine yourself
speaking these phrases in ordinary conversation or perhaps in
the course of a lecture.
Please reply only to my e-mail address:
<robertbdoruk.com.tr>.
and not to the list.
Note: For convenience I will be citing dates in thei "International
English" format (ie cardinal day-number/month-name/year).
Be sure not to let this influence your response if you naturally use
some other format and/or ordinal numbers in such contexts.
Here are the sentences:
=== 8< snip! ====================================================
1. The Louisiana Purchase took place on {30 April 1803}
2. Charlemagne was crowned emperor by Pope Leo on {25 December
800}.
3. The Treaty of Ildefonso was signed on {1 October 1800}.
2. "{1066} and All That" is the title of a humorous book.
3. The thousandth anniversary of the Norman invasion will be
held in {2066}.
4. "{1941}" was directed by Steven Spielberg and starred Dan
Aykroyd.
5. {1900} was not a leap year but {2000} will be.
6. Ken Harrison's film "{1918}" is derived from Horton Foote's
cycle of nine plays called "The Orphans' Home".
7. In an alliance with Sihtric in {1000}, Brian invaded
Conn's Half.
8. Christopher Columbus first reached the Bahamas in October
{1492}.
9. Stanley Kubrick's "{2001}: A Space Odyssey" is based on a
short story by Arthur Clarke. Its follow-up "{2010}" was less
successful.
10. The 20th century began on {1 January 1901}.
=== 8< snip! ====================================================
Thanks in advance for your attention and help. If there is
sufficient interest and response, I'll compile and post my
findings to the list. Any thoughts or comments you might wish to
express on this subject would also be welcome.
Regards,
Robert
<robertbdoruk.com.tr>

Dear Colleagues,
I am trying to compile a typology of the (perhaps) rather limited phenomenon
of consonant harmony, a process of assimilation which affects sequences of
non-contiguous consonants (in a similar fashion to vowel harmony).
To give a simple example, Chumash has been reported to have had such a process,
causing a prefix apical fricative /s/ to alternate with a laminal fricative
/sh/
in the environment before, but not necessarily immediately adjacent to, another
laminal fricative or affricate in the word. Vowels are transparent to this
process,
and hence consonant harmony has a striking long-distance character.
I have so far found the following cases of languages with consonant harmony.
American Indian: Other languages:
Chilcotin (N. Athapaskan) Kinyarwanda (Bantu)
Tahltan (N. Athapaskan) Moroccan Arabic (Semitic)
Navajo (S. Athapaskan) Tamazight/Ntifa (Berber)
Kiowa Apache (S. Athapaskan) Sanskrit (Indo-European)
Chiricahua Apache (S. Athapaskan)
Chumash (Hokan)
Tzeltal (Penutian Mayan)
Southern Paiute (Uto-Aztecan)
There are also claims that consonant harmony is attested in Quechua and
Greenlandic Eskimo, but my preliminary search of some grammars did not confirm
these claims.
I am looking for any other cases of consonant harmony which you may have seen.
References to sources, especially those with some articulatory and/or acoustic
characterizations of the sounds, will be most helpful. Please reply to me and
I'll post a summary.
Thanks,
Diamandis Gafos JHU
gafosmail.cog.jhu.edu
~

I would very much appreciate recommendations (including self-recommendations)
for a qualified person to be a discussant for a panel I am chairing on
"Computer-Mediated Conversation" for the 5th International Pragmatics
Conference in Mexico City this July. The ideal discussant would be an
established scholar with interests in both discourse analysis and
computer-mediated communication, and who is already planning to attend the
Pragmatics Conference.
The original proposal for the panel included Helen Dry in this role, but
unfortunately Helen is unable to attend the conference.
If you have a suggestion for someone you think would be appropriate, please
e-mail me at susanutafll.uta.edu.
Susan Herring

Hello,
A student of mine is writing a paper on (ing) in Canadian English,
focussing mostly on an apparently relatively new variant with a tense
high vowel and an apical nasal: [in]. The use of this variant in
Canadian English has been described by Woods. But it does not seem
to be restricted to Canadian English. E.g., she has noticed that
Americans occasionally use it, and it has been pointed out to us that
it is also found in Irish English. We haven't been able, however, to
find descriptions in the literature of its use outside Canadian English.
We would therefore greatly appreciate any information and observations
that you could pass on to us about dialects where _eating_ can rhyme
with _bean_. Please, reply directly to me: cxjumusica.mcgill.ca.
Thanks.
- Julie Auger

Hello,
I am planning research on Bilingualism of the italian community resident
in Maracaibo, Venezuela. ( Spanish ) . Therefore, I will test young adults (
18 - 30 ). All the literature I have found is about 1989. I will agree any
information, comments, suggestions on interferences of bilingual
communities.Ialso have another question: Could be my presupposed conclusions
similar to other bilingual groups?
I will appreciate any the info you can send.
Thank you in advance!
Nancy Torres
Universidad del Zulia
Maracaibo, Venezuela
ntorreseuropa.ica.luz.ve